On the exterior, what do you wax/protect besides paint?

S

Slinky

New member
I don't think I have seen this talked about very much.



2 cars in my family.



My '03 Focus ZX3 and my dad's new Infiniti FX35



The focus has trim between the 2 pieces of side glass, located on the door, I don't know if it's painted or plastic trim, I'm leaning towards plastic trim, what should I use on this?



The FX35 has a good amount of shiny trim all over, I am at a loss for geussing what this material is, I didn't want to use anything on it quite yet...



I'll get some pics if needed tomorrow.



Any input on other exterior pieces would be helpful to everyone I think :)
 
I treat exterior trim with my trim dream and seal with fireglaze DS/glare pro polish

Glass gets werkstatt after spray polish

wheels get sealed



shiny trim usually means that you can polish it by hand or machine with any 2000 or softer paint polish.

Sonus is brilliant for this but driven, VM and ultra gloss are the usual finishing products on these pieces
 
For black plastic or textured trim, I use Stoners Trim Shine. I love that product, and it's cheap, OTC. Mother's Back to Black also works great.



Most all other surfaces (all lenses, etc.) get whatever wax/polish I'm using on the paint -- unless the product specifically states "not to".
 
I almost *always* use LSPs on my exterior plastic trim. Even use Souveran on the *rubber* trim of the XJS.



Most of my trim gets the Klasse twins or 845, but I've also used 476S and whatever sealant I have on the rest of the car (e.g., BF or UPP). I only use a dressing-type approach if the LSP doesn't work out well.



FWIW, I've also used 1Z polishes on quite a bit of black trim and it almost always works out fine. Sorta surprised me as I'd worried about white staining.



I usually don't bother putting such stuff on the side glass because it gets cleaned off by my alcohol-based window cleaners fairly soon anyhow.
 
Back to Black is fabulous, but is not really a cleaner. It is more of a product to bring back faded trim. Product asked to be cleaned first. KAIO works very good on this.
 
I picked up the "845 on hard rubber" approach from Accumulator, and it really has worked well for me. Textured trims get Chemical Guy's Trim Gel - it's Back to Black or Trim Restore on steroids.



I like to hit up everything with Aquawax once in a while... glass, hard trim, lenses, rims, etc.
 
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